Bhubaneswar mayor Ananta Narayan Jena receives a greeting card from children at his office. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 23: Two-time mayor of the city A.N. Jena has decided to connect with residents of the city on Facebook.

Jena, who was recently elected mayor of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation for the second time in a row, said he would open a Facebook account and welcome the people to communicate with him on it about their grievances. This account would be like a complaint redress and suggestion-welcoming forum.

“I will appoint one person to take care of the account. His work will be to regularly check the account and make note of the mails, posts and comments coming from the citizens. I will then reply the mailers back and instruct the officials to address the issues as soon as possible,” said the mayor.

Jena told The Telegraph about this plan while addressing some residents’ issues at his office yesterday. He said it was not possible to address the problems of all through the face-to-face meeting at his office. Besides, he also gets complaints that even after instructions to the officials, works are not done in many areas.

At present, the civic body has its grievance redress mechanism through Sanjog helpline. It even has system for checking the status of one’s grievance. “The street lights in our area remained defunct for several months, we had been complaining through the helpline number, but to no avail. We met the mayor and he instructed the officials, following which the work was done. If the Facebook account is opened, we will directly complain to the mayor and our problems would be solved faster,” said Gayatri Vihar resident Nishikant Rout.

Jena said the account would be opened by the end of this month.

“I have a limited period of time to listen to the public. After the Facebook account is opened, people can put their issues directly on the wall and there is no need for them to visit to the corporation office. I will try through the proper channel to address their issues faster. People can post their comments. In case of issues not addressed action would be taken against the concerned officials,” said Jena.